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Ray Muzyka
Ray Muzyka is a Canadian entrepreneur. He is the CEO at BioWare Corp as well as a Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of the BioWare RPG/MMO Group of Electronic Arts (comprising BioWare Edmonton, BioWare Austin, BioWare Montreal, BioWare Ireland and Mythic Entertainment, now BioWare Mythic) at BioWare's parent company Electronic Arts. Career Muzyka co-founded BioWare in 1995 with the other co-founder and VP of BioWare, Greg Zeschuk, after they earned their medical degrees at the University of Alberta. After selling BioWare to Electronic Arts in 2008, Muzyka became a General Manager and Vice President at EA in addition to his General Manager/CEO role at BioWare, and subsequently became a Senior Vice President and Group General Manager at EA. Muzyka and Zeschuk were the co-executive producers on Shattered Steel, the Baldur's Gate series (PC), MDK2, MDK2: Armageddon, the Neverwinter Nights series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox and PC), Jade Empire (Xbox) and Mass Effect (Xbox 360 and PC), released in 2007, a sci-fi action RPG based on another original BioWare intellectual property. BioWare released Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a DS RPG title set in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, published by Sega, in 2008. BioWare also created the 2009 release Dragon Age: Origins, a fantasy roleplaying game for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC set in a new BioWare-created universe, and in 2010 launched Mass Effect 2, sequel to Mass Effect. The latest BioWare project is another LucasArts collaboration, Star Wars: The Old Republic, scheduled for launch in 2011. This is an MMORPG style game. As of 2010, BioWare has studio teams at five locations (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, plus Austin, Texas, USA and its associated CS center in Galway, Ireland, and the BioWare Mythic studio in Fairfax, Virginia, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada). BioWare is also selling content directly to its fans through the BioWare Community at www.bioware.com and store.bioware.com, with a social community established at social.bioware.com. BioWare also formed a new substudio based in Austin in late 2005, developing an MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic; BioWare and LucasArts announced a partnership on this project in 2007. BioWare formed its new Montreal studio location in early 2009 and partnered with Mythic as part of the BioWare RPG/MMO Group of Electronic Arts in 2009. The BioWare Ireland location was announced in mid-2010. In addition to his project development role, Muzyka has also managed the financial, human resources, operations, marketing and legal business side of BioWare, and has completed his executive MBA program at the Ivey School of Business, UWO. Dr. Muzyka also graduated from Old Scona Academic High School in Edmonton, Alberta. Muzyka was from 2001-2008 a board member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and serves as a Director and Co-Chairman of CodeBaby Corp., another software company developing a next generation interface for digital media and the Internet. An avid poker player who plays in the WSOP and other events each year, Muzyka won the inaugural DICE poker tournament in 2006 which featured a range of notable poker celebrities such as Scott Fischman, Chris Ferguson and Perry Friedman, playing heads-up with Mike Morhaime from Blizzard at the final table. He also became the only player thus far to win the DICE tournament twice, when he chopped the final table with three other players for first place again in the 2010 DICE tournament. He competed in the 2008 WCPC Main Event (CPT Western Canadian Poker Classic, $1600 buy-in Main Event) and chopped the final table with the final four players to take home the 2008 WCPC ring. He finished 374th of 7319 players in the 2010 Main Event of the WSOP. BioWare projects credited with platforms and dates * Shattered Steel (PC and Mac, 1996) * Baldur's Gate (PC and Mac, 1998) ** Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC and Mac, 1999) * MDK2 (Dreamcast and PC, 2000) * Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (PC and Mac, 2000) ** Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (PC and Mac, 2001) * MDK2: Armageddon (PS2, 2001) * Neverwinter Nights (PC and Mac, 2002) ** Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide (PC and Mac, 2003) ** Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark (PC and Mac, 2003) ** Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker (PC and Mac, 2005) * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ("KotOR") (Xbox and PC and Mac, 2003) * Jade Empire (Xbox, 2005/PC, 2006) * Mass Effect (Xbox 360, 2007/PC, 2008) * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (2008 * Dragon Age: Origins (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Mac, 2009) * Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360 and PC) * Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC, in development (Release: Spring 2011)) * Dragon Age 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, in development (Release: March 2011)) * Mass Effect 3 (PC, Xbox 360, in development) Category:Developers